Whincup blitzes Bathurst Shootout

In a thrilling finale to the shootout late on Saturday afternoon at Mt Panorama, Whincup was set a challenge by Pepsi Max driver Winterbottom and he responded by fighting fire with fire.

Winterbottom looked to have pole wrapped up when he posted a time of two minutes 8.0764 seconds around the Mt Panorama circuit, the Ford driver exultantly declaring in a TV interview just moments after he finished: "I love these laps when you own Bathurst."

But Winterbottom would ultimately rue a slower third and final sector of his lap as Whincup blitzed the circuit in the day's final run.

Despite the sun being low in the sky, almost in the driver's eyes, Whincup edged out Winterbottom in both the first two sectors and maintained the pace through to the end as he finished with a time of 2:07.8825.

The result was Whincup's first pole at the Bathurst 1000 and his 50th overall career pole.

"Oh well, first for everything", said Whincup to his crew after the lap. "First pole at Bathurst. Great job guys, good car."

Jason Bright was third fastest for Brad Jones Racing with a time of 2:08.2763 as he narrowly edged out VIP Pet Foods driver Shane van Gisbergen (2:08.2804).

James Courtney finished the session in fifth with a time of 2:08.8310, edging out sixth-placed Red Bull driver Craig Lowndes (2:08.9636) as Will Davison (2:09.0233), Scott McLaughlin (2:09.1926), David Reynolds (2:09.2433) and Alexander Premat (2:10.4145) rounded out the top 10.